I’ll have to admit that this is the first Christmas shopping season where I’ve yet to complete my shopping – been way too busy and there’s been way too many gadgets that I’ve wanted for myself. With that said, it looks like BradsDeals.com and Yahoo! Shopping are trying to find a way to make the next 60 (or so) days of this shopping season and beyond that much easier for all of us online shoppers.

BradsDeals.com, the leading website for shopping deals and advice, and Yahoo! Shopping, the #1 comparison shopping site are expanding their commitment to providing consumers with the best deals this holiday season. This year they are building upon their successful partnership on with “60 Days of Deals!” where each day through January 5, 2011, Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Deals and BradsDeals.com will showcase one exclusive offer from a major retailer.

“Our editorial team (at BradsDeal.com) is tracking sales and coupons for the season’s must-have items at nearly 1500 retailers. A ‘BradsDeal’ is what happens when we match one of those valuable coupons with a deeply-discounted sale item.”

With Yahoo! Shopping involved, over 20 million people have access to these 1500+ deals. Take the hint, don’t be lazy and check it all out. I know that I will.

[ Links: BradsDeals.com, Yahoo! Shopping ]

Slashdot directs your attention to the fact that wireless carriers are just starting to realize they can monetize all matter of data collected from mobile users – specifically data that highlights their movement habits. According to MIT Technology Review, researchers and marketers are finding plenty of new uses for call detail records, or CDRs which allow them to study a mountain of user behavior data. That data can be used by researchers or city planners to study travel behavior – but it’s likely going to be a gold mine on the marketing behavioral front:

…cell phone networks are thinking about monetizing their data, says Jean Bolot, a researcher at network operator Sprint. This means a “two-sided” business model where they not only serve end users but also make money through relationships with other businesses. “This is new in the telco space but not in other areas–look at Google, for example,” he says. Since almost everyone has a cell phone, the scale of the data is immense compared to other sources. Mobility patterns might, for example, be used to adjust property or billboard advertising prices. “Just about every operator on the planet is probably thinking about this right now,” says Bolot.

Of course all of this raises a number of privacy concerns, and while much of this data is aggregate – it’s not particularly difficult for those who buy this data to identify individual user identities (most of us do stay in one place most nights). Keep in mind many ISPs sell user clickstream data (but deny it) with little or no acknowledgment of this fact to the end user, no oversight and no ability to opt out. It seems likely that privacy, consumer education and consumer controls will be an afterthought here as well.

Link to the original article…

As the broadband stimulus bill was being hashed out, you’ll recall it was stripped of some very lucrative, carrier-lobbied-for tax credits that would have given companies like Verizon billions for doing absolutely nothing differently – after the credits were exposed by the NY Times. With no cash giveaways, fears that taking funds could lead to additional regulations and restrictions requiring that ISPs use the money on under-served areas, last summer found the biggest ISPs saying no thanks to $7.2 billion in stimulus funds. Thousands of companies who actually want to deploy to rural markets wound up applying instead.

Ever since the first round however, the mega-carriers have been lobbying the government to have the restrictions on how they can spend the (your) money removed. Specifically, carriers wanted language removed that required fund recipients to adhere to neutral network principles, and they didn’t want to be restricted to using the funds for rural and/or under-served markets only. Judging from Qwest’s comments to the Denver Business Journal, they’ve been successful in getting those provisions removed. Qwest’s Colorado president seems to indicate that Qwest will apply for the second round of funding:

“The good news is that they seem to have heard us in Washington, D.C.” said Chuck Ward, Qwest’s Colorado president. “It almost gets us able to apply.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture s Rural Utilities Service and Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) adjusted rules for the nearly $3 billion second round of broadband stimulus grants. “We’ll see – we’ve put everybody back to work and dusted off the analysis we did for the first round,” Ward said.

Of course what Ward means by “we’ll see,” is that his lawyers are still digging through the language of the new round of funding, and if Qwest sees anything at all that requires them to actually do anything, they probably won’t apply. History is full of giant corporations that prefer their taxpayer funds with absolutely no accountability, and that is essentially what the biggest ISPs want if they’re going to apply for these funds.

You might recall that Qwest insisted that just $1 billion dollars from taxpayers would help them deploy regular DSL service to 95% of the company’s current footprint. One question is whether a company like Qwest deserves a taxpayer subsidy to deploy service to under-served areas, given the fact that Qwest has a bit of a history with skimping on network upgrades, yet has spent millions of dollars fighting under-served communities’ efforts to wire themselves with broadband. Most notably Qwest spent millions trying to derail municipal fiber efforts in Utah, suing to stop Utopia from using state utility poles, while claiming that municipal fiber to the home service caused “long term harm to consumers“.

Not exactly a bailout, but if these huge carriers can get tax money and not do anything differently, it sounds a lot like AIG to me.

Link to the original article…

Wireless carriers did a great job last week fund raising for Haiti relief, drumming up millions of dollars in user donations in very short order via SMS. Normally, there’s a ninety day window in between the user donation and the relief getting delivered, as user billing cycles must complete, payment must be verified, and then handled by an intermediary. Stepping up to the plate, Verizon Wireless has issued a statement saying they’ve immediately transferred $2,987,560 to the American Red Cross to expedite the aid process. Sprint meanwhile tells the New York Times they’re immediately forwarding 80% of their received donations, while AT&T is examining the possibility. Meanwhile, Comcast says they’re pledging one million dollars in support to the Red Cross and to the American Red Cross and to Télécoms Sans Frontières (Telecom without Borders), a nonprofit agency that brings telecom services to crisis areas.

This seems to go against the Neowin report where Cell Phone Companies are Withholding Support, but any support is better than none.

Link to the original article…

In a deal that was all but sealed going into the weekend, seems like Yelp’s CEO Jeremy Stoppleman has abandoned that prior deal with Google.

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman walked away from the deal this weekend just as it was reaching the later stages of negotiation. TechCrunch speculates that another company may have approached Yelp for a strategic deal that would urge Stoppleman to back away from the Google deal.

Yelp is a website that allows members to review local businesses from local nightlife, shopping centers to restaurants and religious organizations. Users can submit reviews and ratings on their experience for other curious shoppers to see. Yelp is available in The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, which offers location services to find places near you.

Half a billion dollars… and he walked away. If the “other company” involved can throw around more money, it only leaves Microsoft since Yahoo is still hurting and losing value per day; and current conditions definitely count out AOL Aol.

Let’s see what happens.

[ Related Links: Neowin, TechCrunch ]

Earlier this year we noted how companies like Verizon are very clearly turning away from rural America, creating a new niche for smaller “rural super telcos” to thrive. The merger of CenturyTel and Embarq creates one such company, but Windstream Communications is also picking up speed in this sector as well. Windstream recently acquired NuVox Communications, and was also rumored to be sniffing around the assets of bankrupt Fairpoint Communications. Windstream continues the trend today by announcing they’re acquiring Iowa Telecom (and its 256,000 access lines, 95,000 broadband and 26,000 digital TV customers) for about $1.1 billion. Interestingly, the company has had money for acquisitions, but not for employees: the erosion of landline revenues recently resulted in a 3% workforce reduction.

Link to the original article…

[ Related: Windstream Acquires NuVox ] [ Related: Windstream Upgrades DSL Speed ]

Before you jump to conclusions, it’s not that IBM will no longer manufacture that precious little chip that powers your Sony PlayStation 3, but the Sony, Toshiba and IBM co-developed processor will not see the previously announced 32 SPE processor ever happen now. Not by IBM at least. And previously, Toshiba bought out Sony’s stake in the Cell CPU foundry [ article here ] almost two years ago.

IBM’s most recent development in the Cell Processor’s design is the PoweXCell 8i, which is featured in the second most powerful supercomputer in the world; Roadrunner.

However, this is where Cell will end for IBM. The company’s Vice President David Turek, told German website Heise Online that the planned 32 SPE Cell processor will not be made.

Fret not… the PlayStation3 processor will still live on. And if Sony wants to use a variation of the Cell in the PlayStation4, I’m sure IBM can be convinced with a few briefcases of money. But it does make you wonder what else will happen for this “wonder” chip. Seems to me like it’s finally starting to lose to the faster, more efficient (to program for at least) CPU plus GPU combination.

[ PlayStation University ] [ Heise Online ] [ IBM ]

Being up-to-date and/or being an early adopter in the realm of gadgets is very expensive. In this edition of Save Money Mondays, I’d love to share with you one of the places that collects a lot of software and hardware deals in one place for your perusal. I’ve been a fan of Deals2buy.com [ site here ] for years. I’ve bought my previous Aliph Jawbone 2 earpiece via a link from their site and saved about $45 dollars off of retail among other deals for software, coupons and other gadget deals over the years. Definitely a site worthy of bookmarking.

They also collect those hard to find Dell coupons as well.

[ Deals2buy.com ] [ Related: RTL Deals ]

In this edition of Save Money Monday, I’d like to direct your attention to the ever-changing Dealighted.com [ site here ] which lists some of the absolute best sales, deals and coupons for everything from computer products and upgrades to fashion to even travel and website hosting and vitamins.

Subscribe to Dealighted’s RSS feed for the best chances at savings.

[ Dealighted ] [ Related: RTL Deals ]

Everybody loves Amazon.com, right? It’s convenient, it’s trusted, it’s huge and sometimes it’s the cheapest place to shop for certain items. And every now-and-then, it’s incredibly cheap. But those heavily discounted items can be hidden under all of the items offered at the Amazon site. And did you know that Amazon sometimes has coupons? That’s right, certain items can be bought for even a bit cheaper. But how?

Enter Top Hot Deal [ site here ] who brings to the table a unique way to save money via Amazon discount codes and percentages off on a site I use (honestly) at least twice a month for quite a few purchases. For instance, let’s say you’re looking for a belt you’re in need to replace. Hit up Top Hot Deal, click Amazon discount deals, then click Apparel & Accessories then click on (and I’m being greedy here) 90% discount. In my search via the site, I came up to a belt that could take a buckle for 77 cents in the first few search results.

Go to Amazon directly, search for belts. Then change to Men’s, then sort by price. That same item price still doesn’t initially show up. It was hidden a bit on the third or so page – the price on my initial find came up still under its original price of $18.95 instead of the killer 77 cent deal I found on the same belt. This isn’t saying that the Amazon.com search is a pain in the butt horribly flawed, but I found my experience via Top Hot Deal rather easy and quick.

Just wish I went to the site first when I just bought “The Lost Symbol”. Found a coupon that could have saved me a few more dollars. Live and learn I guess.

Note: Sorry for the delay on this week’s Save Money Monday feature. Due to a server issue, things got delayed but all is fine now.

[ TopHotDeal: Amazon Discounts Codes ] [ Related: RTL Deals ] [ Amazon ]

The good guys over at Tweaktown have reviewed the Athlon II X4 620 processor, a quad-core cpu for the masses. It’s not as hardcore as the AMD Phenom or Intel Quad Cores… but it’s a quad core cpu for under $100 bucks.

AMD’s own marketing strategy for Phenom II is for high-end market, and it leaves a gap for the mainstream segment, but not anymore we see.

Today AMD has its newest addition to the K10 family out using the Athlon naming, which gave them such a good hit all those years ago. Introducing the first quad-core mainstream CPU from AMD, which is dubbed the Athlon II X4.

(Caches) This is where Athlon II makes its distinction from the Phenom II line. Athlon II has had a cache cut done in order to save money on production as well as to reduce its overall performance.

Read the entire [ article ] over at Tweaktown.

If you want some furniture that screams I have more money and less taste than you can possibly imagine, then go get yourself some neon decorated furniture. Seriously, though this stuff does have a place. I can’t imagine a cooler way to sit around a dingy basement home bar or poker table.

The featured product is Lee Broom’s Electric Louis. Check out the Lee Broom site for his full range of electric furniture.

Price: N/A [Lee Broom via Kanye West Blog]

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Link to the original article…